Derek Lowe is a

medicinal chemist Medicinal or pharmaceutical chemistry is a scientific discipline at the intersection of chemistry and pharmacy involved with designing and developing pharmaceutical drugs. Medicinal chemistry involves the identification, synthesis and developmen ...

working on preclinical

drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology, and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or ...

in the pharmaceutical industry. Lowe has published a blog about this field, "In the Pipeline", since 2002 and is a columnist for the

Royal Society of Chemistry The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a learned society and professional association in the United Kingdom with the goal of "advancing the chemistry, chemical sciences". It was formed in 1980 from the amalgamation of the Chemical Society, the ...

's ''

Chemistry World ''Chemistry World'' is a monthly chemistry news magazine published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. The magazine addresses current events in the world of chemistry including research, international business news and government policy as it affe ...

''.

Biography

Lowe (born in

Harrisburg, Arkansas Harrisburg is a city in Poinsett County, Arkansas, Poinsett County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 2,212 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is included in the Jonesboro, Arkansas Metropolitan Statistical Area. The ci ...

) got his BA from

Hendrix College Hendrix College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Approximately 1,000 students are enrolled, mostly undergraduates. While affiliated with the United Methodist Chu ...

and his PhD in

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the science, scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic matter, organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain ...

from

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

on synthesis of natural products, before spending time in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

on a

Humboldt Fellowship The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation () is a foundation that promotes international academic cooperation between scientists and scholars from Germany and abroad. Established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, it is funded by th ...

. Lowe was one of the first people to blog from inside the pharmaceutical industry, with the approval of his supervisor and the company legal department, and one of the first science bloggers. By 2006, his blog had between 3,000 and 4,000 visitors per day during the workweek; he covered business matters, trends and issues in medicinal chemistry, and legal matters like patent law and regulation. At that time he was working at a pharmaceutical company doing

hit to lead Hit to lead (H2L) also known as lead generation is a stage in early drug discovery where small molecule hits from a high throughput screen (HTS) are evaluated and undergo limited optimization to identify promising lead compounds. These lead compo ...

medicinal chemistry work. his blog received between 15,000 and 20,000 page views on a typical weekday. His response to a 2013 article in

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

that propagated

chemophobia Chemophobia (or chemphobia or chemonoia) is an aversion to or prejudice against chemicals or chemistry. The phenomenon has been ascribed both to a reasonable concern over the potential adverse effects of synthetic chemicals, and to an irrational ...

was widely cited. He serves on the editorial board of ''

ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters ''ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering medicinal chemistry. It was established in 2009 and is published by the American Chemical Society. The editor-in-chief is Dennis C. Liotta (Emory University ...

'' and on the advisory board of ''

Chemical & Engineering News ''Chemical & Engineering News'' (''C&EN'') is a weekly news magazine published by the American Chemical Society (ACS), providing professional and technical news and analysis in the fields of chemistry and chemical engineering.Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...

; formerly he had worked for 10 years at Vertex, 9 years at

Bayer Bayer AG (English: , commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies and biomedical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer' ...

, and 8 years at

Schering-Plough Schering-Plough Corporation was an American pharmaceutical company. It was originally the U.S. subsidiary of the German company Schering AG, which was founded in 1851 by Ernst Christian Friedrich Schering. As a result of nationalization, it becam ...

Notable publications

Book

Selected scientific papers

* * * *

Selected blogs or commentary

* (1st post) * * Cited in * * , * * *

References

External links

*Lowe's
In the Pipeline
blog
Columns
at ''

'' * *
Reddit AMA
28 February 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Derek Science bloggers 21st-century American chemists Drug discovery Hendrix College alumni Duke University alumni Living people People from Harrisburg, Arkansas Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century science writers